Longarm Quilting - A Whole New World!

The "guard bear" greets visiting quilters, watch along the long driveway for other critters!

Last Wednesday my MBQG bee, the Cove Quilters went to Lynn Jones' longarm quilting studio outside of Bridgewater. I had been before but not many of my bee had been. Lynn was quilting Donna's quilt so she waited to quilt the last few block so we could see how the machine worked and how the whole planning and setup worked too.

Awhile ago Lynn quilted my Fireside Log Cabin, a quilt I made in a Heather Stewart workshop last fall. That quilt was the first one on which she used a new computer program which illustrated how the chosen quilting pattern would look on the quilt. She did the same for Donna's quilt. A picture is taken of the quilt top, then the image of the quilting is superimposed on top of the quilt top so you do get a good idea of what it will look like.

Donna's quilt with the quilting pattern on the computer.

It was fascinating to watch the longarm machine stitch. I could have watched it all day! They are quite the machines and there are so many thousands of patterns to chose from.

Lynn has a great setup, a separate building down the hill from her house. It is bright and clean, lots of windows that have a wonderful view across the rolling hills. A perfect place to work. Lynn has a great selection of battings and backing fabrics for her customers to chose from.

Donna, Sandy and Linda talk about different battings with Lynn. Her favourite is a "soy/cotton", a new Pellon batting that had a wonderful soft touch.

Donna and Lynn watch the Gammill at work.

Thanks Lynn for a wonderful and informative afternoon!

Busy Week

We just had a wonderful week with my very good quilt friend Heather Stewart. Heather was in Mahone Bay to do some quilt workshops and lecture with the Mahone Bay Quilter's Guild. She came a few days early so we could go to Avonport Discount Fabrics otherwise known locally as "Faye's" and so that she could spend the better part of a day with our bee the "Cove Quilters" (she is a long distance member). We accomplished a lot, Faye had some great fabrics on sale as well as her very reasonably priced regular cottons. We had a lovely lunch with Faye at the Port Pub in Port Williams plus a few stops at some farm markets and Oulton's, the farm butcher.

Since it was the day before Hallowe'en, Sandra had a wonderful Hallowe'en theme. We were so pleased to have about 25 kids at our door for Hallowe'en, as well as a group of costumed teens who were collecting for the local food bank, nice touch!

Lunch with the bee was wonderful, we gathered at Sandra R's beautiful home by the ocean.

We had a yummy lunch, lots of quilt talk and show and tell and lots of laughs.

Heather's workshops on colour and her Fireside Log Cabin were terrific. I found the colour one a challenge as I was just days away from cataract surgery and that did not help me chose the gradations and values I needed but I still learned a lot. The Fireside Log Cabin was great fun, we had cut a lot of strips before hand so were ready to start sewing right away. I chose off-whites and grays with a tangerine centre. a couple of days after I had my surgery and was very surprised to see that my grays ranged from green grays to violet grays to blue grays and everything in between! I love it! I have 9 of the 20 blocks done so far.

Heather has another busy week ahead of her with workshops in Dartmouth and Cape Breton. I am sure everyone there will learn a lot and have a wonderful time just like we did.

Cove Quilters "Flowers" Challenge #7

For our 7th 12" x 12" challenge Donna chose the theme "Flowers". We could do whatever we wanted, no restrictions as to techniques or design or type of flower. I found this one had, perhaps too many choices? I kept changing my mind. Since we live by the ocean, I decided to use that as my theme and make it a garden of flowers I wish that I could have had.

My April garden, the Daphne is in bloom, the rhubarb is coming, here I am looking out St. Margaret's Bay to Peggy's Cove. Sure wish we didn't have all those power lines!

My "Ocean Garden" machine applique, fused, machine quilted. The rest of the flower challenges can be seen here.

With almost an acre and a half of land, there is lots of room for the garden of my dreams, just wish I was about 30 years younger! Vicki has chosen "Lotsa Dots" as our last challenge - should be fun. I certainly have lots of polka dot fabric to chose from!